Animalia > Arthropoda > Arachnida > Mesostigmata > Varroidae > Varroa > Varroa destructor

Varroa destructor (varroa mite)

Wikipedia Abstract

Varroa destructor (Varroa mite) is an external parasitic mite that attacks the honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. The disease caused by the mites is called varroosis. Varroa mites can only reproduce in a honey bee colony. It attaches to the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking hemolymph. In this process, RNA viruses such as the deformed wing virus (DWV) spread to bees. A significant mite infestation will lead to the death of a honey bee colony, usually in the late autumn through early spring. The Varroa mite is the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It may be a contributing factor to colony collapse disorder, as research shows it is the main factor for collapsed colonies in Ontario, Canada and the United States.
View Wikipedia Record: Varroa destructor

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Varroa destructor

Providers

Parasite of 
Apis cerana (Asiatic honey bee)[1]
Apis mellifera (honey bee)[1]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0